The garage 2: Notes on cleaning and packing

One thing that I've learn't was that we need to make extra sure that there are no organic substance on any of the things we need to take with. I've got a little steam cleaner thingy that helps a lot with getting into the small corners of things - especially the things that have gathered mud or soil or sand, like the mountain bike shoes, clips, gears, etc, but also on tools that have gathered plant saps or wood bits.

We've been keeping inventory lists of everything that's been going into boxes or containers. Last night one of the removal agents (I'll write more about that later - we're still waiting on the final survey's and quotes) made it quite clear that we're really wasting our time packing everything ourselves, and that it'll be better if we just put everything aside for them to pack - they obviously know better. The price of packing is included in most quotes, and there's no discount for packing yourself!

The garage 1: Notes on plugs

This weekend has been dedicated to the garage. As previously mentioned, I am a gatherer of note! ...and the garage has been my domain. I've been packing, cleaning, re-packing, throwing away, fetching from the dustbin, throwing away again for quite a while now and have managed to pack two containers!



One of the things that's been troubling me, was whether I could take electrical appliances etc with. It appears as if the currents and voltages are similar to what we have in the R of SA, but the plugs are substantially different. I've been putting aside all gathered plugs and fittings that I've always thought I'd need at some stage or another, since the plugs in Perth look like this this:



Check out the following link if you need more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets#Type_I_.28Australian.2FNew_Zealand_.26_Chinese.2FArgentinian_2.2F3-pin.29

Remember

Remember to:

• Give notice for settling car finance
• Give notice for settling mortgage
• Check out bank accounts (Aus has got capital gains tax on money in bank accounts when affected by the exchange rate- or something...)
• Switch off your MNet / DSTV account before the new/last/full month starts - you won't have much time to watch tv anyway
• Arrange for your mobile phone contracts / ongoing monthly extensions to be terminated
• Cancel your telephone landline & ADSL (if you have one)
• Arrange for someone with signing rights to do deals on your behalf
• Get your driver's license 'internationalised' by the AA
• Give notice to your Medical Aid - get the timeframes right
• Check out your life insurance for international coverage
• Smile

On mobile phones: My contract has expired a while ago. I opted not to renew, but as you know, some of the providers keep the contract running, and you need to give more than one month's notice should you want to cancel this arrangement (yes, it is in the fine print).

The minute I start making lists I get really nervous. Don't forget to enjoy the adventure - it's a challenge, and it's fun! (Get enough sleep!)

Show house

We had to get everything ready to 'show' the house on Sunday. My goodness, we've suddenly done so many things that's been lying in waiting for the past 3 years - why only now that we're moving away? Take my advice: make believe you've put your place on the market - it's amazing how nice you can make it for yourself when you still plan to stay there!

We dropped Anchen's Yaris off at the Valley Motor Show on Sunday. Cars get parked there for a nominal fee of R55 for everyone to view. One person showed an interest and we're awaiting his decision at the moment. We also still have to sell the Corsa bakkie.

In the meanwhile I've made some progress with the visa application forms (Forms 1066 and 956). Note: Keep all your certificates for all the courses you ever attend - they do help when having to fill out things like this.

I promised some pics of the house:

Listing our house!

We worked till well over 11pm last night.  Anchen did the floors, I did outside (cleaning the stoep and getting a problematic water feature to work properly - the pipe kept on falling back into the water leaving the feature dry!)

We moved some of the furniture still standing around lazily, as if scared of the wet paint, back into their positions (some put up quite a fight - you know how it is:  once a bookshelf gets used to standing in the middle of the room, they're hard to convince that they actually belong against the wall!)

This morning the house is looking snazzy - maybe I'll add a photo later!

This afternoon an agent is coming to see if she'd like to market it with Anchen.  We've decided to go for only one agent that will market with us - no signing the sole mandate thing, though!   Fortunately Anchen knows everybody on that circuit, so she was quite convinced of whom she'd like for the job.

Now we're holding thumbs that the market price is somehow in range with our expectation  -  if you know of anybody looking for a house in the Durbanville / Bellville area, let me know! (There might be a small commission or a box of chocolates...)

Gatherers of stuff...

I can confidently declare myself a gatherer of stuff!  Anchen, on the other hand, travels light.

The gemorst I've gathered in the short time we've been at our current house is currently being carted away by the bakkie loads.  ...and it takes hours and hours and terrible back aches to get everything out of the way.  This moving abroad is very different from just moving house.

For the first time in my life I'm leaving behind my plants.  This is horrifying, but I hope the people who buy our house will look after them with the same love. (The selling of the house is a different topic - one of much prayer!)

There are also the things one cannot just dump at the 'asgate'.  We're taking pictures and advertising on Gumtree (www.gumtree.co.za)  It's a snazzy site to publish anything for sale - with specific focus on the Cape Town area.

(By the way - we've considered a garage sale, but realised that it will only result in one spectacular party and even though we would really welcome the party, I doubt we'll do much with respect to clearing some of the stuff away!)

Painting the house

One of the things on our list was to get the inside walls of our house painted.  We've been living there for close on 4 years now, and it was due.

A note to industry: word of mouth is your strongest ad campaign!  We got hold of someone who did work for friends of ours (let me know if you're in the Cape Town area and I'll forward the details) and despite the normal little things here and there, the overall job was well done.

Lessons learnt:

• Move your own stuff (furniture, portraits, lights, etc)
• Cover your stuff with your own covers, and let them cover those with their's.
• Impress on everyone the importance of NOT cleaning any mess without consulting with you (I mean: paint on the extractor fan of your stove unit should be cleaned differently to paint on the tiles outside)
• Don't allow access to your own tools - let them use their's and only their's.

After all is said and done, the house looks beautiful, and it was definitely worth it.

Continued

One of the biggest concerns was the visa  (..no, the credit card will apparently not do  -  I did ask!)  My new employer offered to act as a sponsor - this means that they'll vouch for me coming to work with them, and not that they'll pay for anything.  Once you've got a sponsor, there are a few ways of going about it (check out http://www.workingin-australia.com/ for more)

• Do it yourself (embassy, letters of motivation, etc)
• Do it online (too many places to choose from)
• Get someone to help you with the process - this is the one we opted for.

Getting an agent to help is a little more expensive (around AUD2300 - including the actual fees for the documents), but I'm beginning to think that it's worthwhile.  We've got enough other things to keep us occupied, and there's a risk that if you do it yourself, it might not align to your timelines!  At this stage we've received some forms that we need to fill out and send back to get the process going.

On request

So many people have asked us what where and how this whole 'moving to Aus' thing came about. Once answered, we're all wondering: "What now?"

I thought I'd share some of it here.

After working for the same company for almost 7 years it was time to change something. Options were to stay in SA, or move to the UAE. Despite my total dedication and addiction to my job, I also needed to consider other options including moving from my safety zone! (Never nice...!)

I managed to get hold of someone from Australia to discuss possibilities, implications, wonder-abouts, fears and more fears. On 2 September 08 I was offerred a position at that company, based in Perth.

That is how it started.